acceleration

Are speed, power, and agility different physical abilities? If they are, do they need to be tested and trained with different exercises? Does this change with different levels of athletes? In other words, are younger athletes more general than more elite and experienced athletes? Negra et al published a study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that attempted to answer some of these questions with younger athletes. In their study they examined almost 190 Tunisian soccer and...

Sprint running has long been divided into three phases: acceleration, maximum velocity, and speed endurance. The first two have been considered important for the training of most athletes. In acceleration running we’re increasing our velocity. Initially this is done via frontside mechanics (i.e. our focus is on lifting our knee, landing on a flat foot, and pushing ourselves along). Maximum velocity running is where we are taller and are focused on frontside and backside running mechanics. With backside mechanics we’re...

Running drills have been around for a long time now. It’s the kind of thing that appeals to a certain type of coach, the ones that are looking for the magic exercise to fix performance. I remember getting into a heated discussion with a jumps coach at the Australian track and field coach’s congress a few years ago about this. The idea behind these drills is to break down a complicated movement skill into its components and to develop...

Agility is often a difficult physical ability to train. I often view it as the summation of the athlete’s physical abilities (strength, speed, mobility, etc.) that is applied to the sport’s movement patterns. This requires all-around development of the athlete and a pretty good understanding of how the athlete moves in the sport. Except at elite levels, most strength and conditioning coaches don’t have the luxury of specializing in a specific sport. This means that they have to work...

For a sprint coach, a sprint is broken into several phases. The start, acceleration, maximum velocity, and speed endurance. The start includes reacting to the starting gun and getting out of the blocks explosively. Acceleration is the process of increasing velocity. Initially the athlete starts off low to the ground, is gradually increasing the size of his or her steps, and is transitioning from a period where frontside mechanics dominate (i.e. lifting the knee, foot is rigid, landing on the...